Retrieving Old Mac Programs

Question

Here is my problem. I have a lot of very old Mac programs that I would like to run on my Mac (PowerPC G5) under the Classic environment. These are quite valuable older programs that are not longer available.
These programs are on discs. I am not familiar with the correct designation for these disks but some of them have an "HD" label on them and others are labeled "Double Density 800KB". I purchased and external disk drive, but was not able to read these these old disks.
I think what needs to be done is have the old disks converted using an older Mac and older software into a format that can be read my my G5. Do any of you know of a company that provides such a service?
Do you have other suggestions to help me retrieve these older programs?
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

PLB11
The mechanics of your intention having been dealt with—although neither Rainer in Germany nor I in Australia can be but an extreme possibility—you will need to consider the logic of the matter also.
If these same applications are not already supported in OS 9 running on an OS 9-bootable Mac (that is, if the applications will not run in OS 9.2.1 at least), you will not be able to use them in the Classic Environment under OS X, and transfers to your G5 will not profit you at all.
Machine-language programs may stand a chance of successfully making the leap (eg WriteNow runs in the CE of OS 10.3.9), but programs with optional (or obligatory) 24-bit operation will probably not survive the transition, nor will those that have no ability to run in a PowerPC (601 processors and later) environment necessarily do so unless they were 'fat binary' (containing the ability to emulate 68K processors).
You may be doing the equivalent of expecting a mediæval barber to replace a cornea successfully. As has been hinted, at least, with the possible exception of machine-language programs, OS 8.0/8.1 may be as modern as you can go, using a 68040 processor probably, or a 60x if you are fortunate.